'don't put if off another day' diary

homegrown_life

Hi there,

I've been on MSE for some time now but decided to get a new username to give a bit more anonymity with my debt free journey I'm about to start. I've been meaning to start this diary for a few days now but put it off, hence the title.

We have over £6K of debt at the moment, the most recent being what we used to get another car as ours broke. I just want to get rid of it as soon as possible. Our DFD at the moment is October 2011 and really I want to knock as much of that off as possible. We already have a very frugal lifestyle, no Sky or gym fees. There's not much that we can cut back on, but hoping to up our income where we can and save extra from shopping more frugally.

What I really want more than anything is to have our own home, we rent at the moment and I want to be settled somewhere so once this debt is gone we'll be saving a deposit and hoping that house prices get somewhere near what we can afford.

Hoping this diary can keep me going a bit, if anyone wants to comment that would be great, but if not I'll ramble to myself!!!

Tixy

Hi Homegrown, happy diary writing - I like your title, thats exactly what I am guilty of in so many areas of life!

Good luck with your journey

homegrown_life

Hi Tixy

thank you very much for your reply I love your sig and so true!! I try and live by that mantra.

Well today has been an ok day, won £1 on the virgin scratchy (only just started that), paid off another £2.30 off my CC, just some money I found in an old savings account the other day that I thought would be put to better use. And it feels good to make a payment! I also sold a dvd on amazon, only listed it today!! Won't make a huge amount, only a couple of pounds, but every little bit helps.

Had a NSD, the first this October, only 9 to go Hubby came in wanting biscuits and sweet stuff and we didn't have any but made Twinks hobnob recipe and that seemed to do the trick

I've also been torturing myself by looking on rightmove and seeing the houses we could buy with what mortgage we'd be offered and it's just pitiful. Hardly anything and in the worst areas of a city. I can only hope that in 2 years when we have a deposit things might have changed a little.

Oh well. Going to watch a film tonight and eat hobnobs. Can't all be bad!!

EssexHebridean

Welcome to diary-world! You sound good and motivated which is an excellent start!

Are you intending to post up an SOA? I know you say there aren't many areas to make savings but you'd be amazed where this lot on here can find for there to be cutbacks!

homegrown_life

Hi EssexHebridean, thanks for the comment. After Christmas I might try and do a SOA. New year, new starts with new savings for next Christmas. Sounds a plan.

Had a good day today. Our car tax refund came through and I'd kind of stopped expecting it due to some mix up when we'd sent it off. Thought it would be best to not expect it and then it would be a surprise when we did get it, have added to my make £5 a day total, but sure if cheating just a bit! Once the cheque has cleared it will get paid off the credit card. Have realised that I might be able to get the CC1 under £1000 by the end of this month, something to aim for anyway.

Posted amazon sale and after postage had a £2.27 profit. Also have some ebay items ending tomorrow which are doing well. I'm going to list a couple more things tomorrow too. I'm not going to list too many things at once as experience tells me it gets a bit overwhelming, so little by little I think.

Did clicks and bingo, nothing exciting to report there though!! Got lots of free food lately which I'm hoping will help stretch the grocery budget. My mum was clearing her cupboards (she's on a new fangled diet :rolleyes:) and so we got lots of rice and pasta and other bits and bobs. Also went to the local apple day round here where they let you pick apples for free. Got at least the equivalent to 3 bags of supermarket apples for nothing. Fab.

Hoping tomorrow might be a NSD, we'll see though.

I'll have to see if I can manage some time to have a good read through other peoples diaries for inspiration soon. Been working today so am very tired... off to bed in a mo!!!

homegrown_life

Well unfortunately I didn't have a NSD on Sunday as I'd hoped as DH decided he NEEDED sweet stuff. I was slightly miffed that he came back with nearly a fivers worth of sweets and coke. :mad: I think I'm starting to spot a recurring thing here and need to nip it in the bud. Bad thing is that when he does buy stuff I'll gladly eat it which doesn't help my waistline. Need to think about how to get out of this habit.

Did a nice cheap shop last night, I have bids on both my ebay things I listed and today is looking like it will be another NSD. All good

I'm going to try and list a couple of DVDs on amazon later too :T

Moneytroubles_2

Hi Homegrown life - welcome to diary land!!

Good luck in your debt free journey. I did the snowball calculator yesterday, and was given a debt free date of october 2019 - I was mortified!! Hoping to halve it! XX

homegrown_life

well I've finally managed to get to today. I'll explain. I have been so rubbish at looking at our finances this year. I think we've just muddled along all year. I finally looked at it the other week and realised we could only just make it to our tax credits payment day tomorrow without having to borrow and scrimp too much. So it's been a bit of a budget couple of weeks, but we've done it with some cash to spare.

My car tax cheque cleared today so that's £108 to pay off the CC1. It should bring my DFD a month closer too :T

I also need to pay the min payment on the CC2 tomorrow. If I pay the monthly pmt as soon as possible then it should help with the interest as it's calculated daily I think.

So tomorrow is the start of a new 'month' for us. I will be on top of it!! I started doing some slice the pie the other day, need to do more so I can get proper cash. Although I have £2 something in from before anyway. I've also signed up for dooyoo but not started yet. I want to have a good look at that either tonight or tomorrow. Done clicks and scratchies - v boring 10p at both!!

Also had another NSD yesterday - that's 3 already.

homegrown_life

I'm not doing well at living by my title! Still haven't made that payment to the CC, just been a little bit higgledy piggledy with tax credits coming in and things going out. Need to write everything down and sort it all out but my online banking isn't working tonight!! Argh! Shall try later.

Couple of good bits. Ebay stuff still going good, have lots of watchers and hopeful I'll get a decent amount for it all. Also e-mailed my mobile phone provider to check when my contract is due to end as I thought it was after the new year. Turns out it already has so I've given notice to cancel it and shall go PAYG :T. No idea how that has happened but not complaining!

Noticed our local Wilkinsons was advertising Christmas jobs and would fit in with childcare issues so I've applied. Could really do with getting it, although no idea what it would do to our Tax credits Shall have a fiddle with figures tonight just in case I am lucky enough to get offered some hours.

I've been having a go at doing some competitions, I've done them before and been fairly lucky so hoping to have more luck. Already won a crunchie

Oh and got another pinecone survey in so hopefully another £4 soon too.

Just need to get it all into order now

homegrown_life

ok, just so I know it won't get swallowed up somewhere, I have just now paid off the £108 from the car tax refund cheque off the CC1. :T Yay, this diary keeping works!!

Right off to organise the rest so I know where I am. Oh and I can update my sig too

savingholmes

welcome to diaryland and good luck with getting a xmas job